Water commission signs MoUs with IIT, IIS on dam safety

New Delhi: To improve its capacity to safeguard dams, the Central Water Commission (CWC) on Friday signed two separate MoUs with Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, said an official statement.

“The Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation has taken on board selected premier academic and research institutes, for capacity building in the areas of dam safety through World Bank-assisted Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP),” said a ministry statement.

“This will help them for the procurement of specified equipment and software for enhancing their capability to support dam rehabilitation efforts of CWC,” it said.

The scope of the MoUs includes strengthening of the test facilities, analytical capabilities and exposure to best global institutions for technological exposure.

Launched in April 2012, the DRIP is expected to cost Rs 2,100 crore over a period of six years. India has about 4,900 large and several thousand smaller dams.

DRIP was originally planned for the rehabilitation and improvement of about 223 dams in the states of Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Tamil Nadu. Later Karnataka, Uttarakhand Aand Jharkhand were included in the project which increased the total number of dams to 250.

The Central Dam Safety Organisation of CWC is responsible for the implementation of the project.